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IBM Metering Software to Help Customers and IT Outsourcing Providers Track and Bill for Computing Usage

New Virtualization Engine Offering Allows Outsourcing and Internal IT Providers to Meet Service Level Agreements

ARMONK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- June 1, 2006 -- IBM today announced new software that assists
customers in virtualizing their entire technology infrastructure by
tracking the use of computing assets across different types of systems.
The software also supplies companies and IT outsourcing providers with a
simple method to bill internal departments or individual clients for the
amount of computing they actually consume.

IBM's new Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager -- incorporating technology
from IBM's January acquisition of CIMS Lab -- takes its cue from how
utility companies meter and bill for electric, gas, oil and water
consumption in homes and commercial buildings.

The software provides a Web-based interface that meters and bills
technology use, allowing customers to measure their virtual server,
storage, network, software, middleware and e-mail "consumption" by company,
department or even individual. It then allows for billing of that use to
either outsourcing clients or to individual departments inside a company.

"A key inhibitor to widespread adoption of virtualization is the ability to
track usage and accurately allocate costs of a shared infrastructure to
internal departments, or in the case of IT outsourcing providers, to charge
their clients for the amount of technology they are consuming," said Rich
Lechner, vice president, Virtualization, IBM. "This software solves that
problem and allows clients to make smarter spending choices in the future
based on usage patterns."

The Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager is designed to simplify how IT
outsourcing companies track virtualized data centers used in outsourcing
engagements, and accurately bill each of their clients. The software
allows for virtualization of shared servers, and it eliminates the need for
outsourcing companies to provide separate servers to each customer to help
meet service level agreements.

The software is also aimed at individual companies who manage their own
virtualized IT by providing a simple way to bill internal departments that
use shared computing resources. For example, a marketing department may
have increased usage during a particular month because of a special
promotion, and the IT department can accurately bill them for increased
computing needs. The software also aids in the planning of future
upgrades, consolidations and purchases of new information technology.

While virtualization allows for once-departmentalized infrastructures to
share resources, many clients have struggled with how to account for usage
and bill departments to justify their current technology budgets.

The IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting software can:

-- Evaluate computing usage trends and apply actual billable costs to
each computation and department;
-- Provide a simple way to show clients how a service provider is
measuring and meeting service level agreements in IT outsourcing
engagements;
-- Indicate, based on usage trends, where dedicated and shared resources
should be placed for clients with locations in multiple geographies;
-- Measure utilization across various hardware, operating system,
applications and other technology resources, to help clients decide how to
consolidate departmental servers and computer equipment into a single,
seamless infrastructure easing future IT spending decisions; and
-- Provide comprehensive and customizable usage and trend reports on
server and storage use, database transactions, printer outputs and network
traffic, among others.

The Salt River Project, the third-largest public power utility in the
nation, is using the technology to capture computing resource usage which
helps its employees and internal departments manage their technology
budgets and plan for future resource requirements.

"By using this tool, we are saving a considerable amount of money and we
are seeing better functionality across our system," said Salt River Project
computer analyst Kimberly Jones. "From a technical standpoint, the Usage
and Accounting Manager is doing a great job."

The software is part of IBM's IT service management offerings, which
automate and simplify the way companies manage clients infrastructures.
With IT service management, companies can handle IT processes the same way
they manage business processes, which helps improve efficiency,
effectiveness and agility.

The IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager is currently available through
IBM or IBM Business Partners for IBM x86 servers and the mainframe. The
IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager will be available for System p
server later this year. Pricing for the IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting
Manager for System X begins at $599 per server and $75,000 for mainframe
customers in the United States.

IBM, Tivoli and ITUAM are copyrighted trademarks of IBM Corporation.
Statements concerning IBM's future development plans and schedules are made
for planning purposes only, and are subject to change or withdrawal without
notice.